Their image as chummy baby-boomer couples helped bring the Clintons and Gores to power in 1992, but the foursome would splinter as Hillary and Al vied to be Bill’s right hand. In an excerpt from her forthcoming book about the Clintons’ White House years, Sally Bedell Smith discovers how the triangle sapped Gore’s 2000 campaign.

On the heels of his 1985 Behind the Sun tour, Eric Clapton dove back into booze, attempted suicide, and left his wife for an Italian beauty. Now, in an excerpt from his memoir, the guitar god comes clean about his downward spiral, and how his son’s birth—and shocking death—helped turn him around.

Va Va Von Furstenberg
Barry Diller’s not the only one in his family with a high-style Manhattan headquarters. Ingrid Sischy visits the radiant new space of Diane von Furstenberg, fashion’s comeback queen. Photographs by William Waldron. Web exclusive: video from the photo shoot.

Columns
[A Death in the Family](/politics/features/2007/11/hitchens200711)

As America struggles with losses in Iraq, one in particular has given Christopher Hitchens pause: a young soldier named Mark Daily, killed in Mosul, who cited the V.F. columnist as an inspiration to sign up.

A Twist in Time
The Peppermint Lounge, New York City, 1960: a social phenomenon known as "the Twist" is born. James Wolcott revisits the frenzied, euphoric moment when the nation’s most glamorous pelvises got rhythm.

Dropped by Pink Floyd in 1968, Syd Barrett vanished from the public eye and died in obscurity last year. Tom Stoppard explains how a photo of the rock star as a middle-aged man named Roger was key to his new play, Rock ’n’ Roll. Web exclusive: a Q&A with Tom Stoppard.

Guilty Feelings
In anticipation of the verdict in the Phil Spector murder trial, Dominick Dunne describes how the high-priced defense team stooped ever lower, even as Spector iced out a top legal star.

The new U.S. Embassy in Iraq is a $600 million compound, fortified to the teeth and lavished with all the amenities—from movie theater to food hall to tennis court. But it sure isn’t built for diplomacy, William Langewiesche writes.

[The People vs. the Profiteers](/politics/features/2007/11/halliburton200711)

Everyone knows that defense contractors are gouging U.S. taxpayers. Shouldn’t the Justice Department be doing something about it? David Rose meets one man who wants Halliburton spin-off KBR to give a couple of billion dollars back. Photographs by Gasper Tringale.

[Becoming Adolf](/culture/features/2007/11/cohen200711)

Adorning Hitler’s lip, the Toothbrush mustache became synonymous with evil. Rich Cohen learns the power of a few bristles.

As Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, and Britney Spears slip further into tabloid infamy, someone should give them a time-out. But, Judith Newman reports, their mothers may be part of the problem.

[Mad About the Boys](/fame/features/2007/11/pearlman200711)

Lou Pearlman, the impresario behind the Backstreet Boys and ’NSync, now sits in jail accused of embezzling more than $300 million. But insiders tell Bryan Burrough that may not be Pearlman’s only sin, as allegations surface that he was a sexual predator too.